Swedes Make a Strong Case for Sober Nightclubs

The music was bumping. Kids were dancing. And no one was drunk, stoned or high on anything except life. No, this wasn’t a scene from Saved by the Bell: The College Years, it really happened in Stockholm.

A staggering 900 people came out to the Södra Theatre for Sober, a booze- and drug-free night of dancing, nonalcoholic beers and mocktails conceived by comedian Mårten Andersson. Andersson recently stopped drinking, with such positive results that he thought more of his Swedish compatriots should try it.

Though a wide range of people came to dance, from under-aged teenagers to recovering alcoholics to breast-feeding moms, there were some complications. Some felt that dancing while sober was too much of a challenge. “It’s like an awkward social experiment,” one man told The Local.

But there was one thing that everyone seemed to enjoy: the Breathalyzer that people were required to blow into before entering the club.